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Fort Morgan City Manager: 'Fiscally sound' city

Jeff Wells goes over what happened in 2015, where things are headed in 2016 with council

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
01/21/2016 10:47:01 PM MST

Fort Morgan City Manager Jeff Wells gives his annual report to the Fort Morgan City Council on Tuesday night at City Hall. Wells said the city was in good fiscal shape at the end of 2015 and heading into 2016. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

Jeff Wells called it his "privilege" to give his annual report on the state of the city to the Fort Morgan City Council.

"I'm very pleased to report that I think (things) went very well for the city of Fort Morgan," the city manager said.

He offered much of the credit for that to city employees.

"We have a wide array of different professionals that work together as a team to provide the best services for our citizens," Wells said. "I know from time to time we don't hit the mark, but I would like to think and I know that our employees are dedicated to making our community a better place."

Fort Morgan now owns its Wastewater Treatment Plant, shown above, "free and clear," according to City Manager Jeff Wells. The city made its final $750,000 payment on the plant in 2015, retiring the related debt and freeing up the opportunity for bonding for future large projects, like the Northern Integrated Supply Project. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times file photo)

As he continued the report, Wells went over the city's finances as 2015 ends and 2016 begins, projects that the city completed last year or that are still in the works, community events and ongoing initiatives. These were intended to meet the goals the city manager had set and that council had set for him in the areas of fiscal accountability, economic development, employee development and community engagement, he said.

Finances

At the end of 2015, Fort Morgan was in a good place fiscally, Wells told the council. Part of that was due to levels of fund reserves, and another part was from conservative budgeting and spending by the council and city staff.

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"We see a consistent trend in our financial position over the last several years," he said. "This is primarily due to the conservative nature of city council and this community, and making sure that we are looking at the bottom line and trying to be sustainable in all the different activities that we engage in."

For example, at the start of 2015, the city's general fund held $13.2 million, or 160 percent of total general fund expenditures, Wells said.

"If we had to live off of our rainy day fund, we could," he said of what that means for the city and the benefits of having de-Bruced to retain revenues instead of refunding them as the Taxpayers Bill of Rights would have otherwise required.

"Most communities have a rainy day fund limited by TABOR of 3 percent," Wells said. "We saw situations in the 2013 flood, and the 2015 flood, we saw situations where we needed to assist in development within the community, such as putting together Acoma Avenue so that the middle school could be built. We see these different things come up, and we're able to fund those and make those things happen because of the fund balance we have."

The line to get into the Fort Morgan Light & Power Department shop stretches out into the street at about noon Oct. 7, 2015, for the annual Utilities Week Barbecue. This annual community event allows people to learn about city utilities, which play a large role in city finances and keeping the city financially secure, according to City Manager Jeff Wells. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times file photo)

However, he expects to finish 2016 with a smaller general fund balance due to the various projects that the city did in 2015, including some that will be finished this year.

"But overall, we're headed in the right direction to make sure that we are fiscally sound," Wells said.

Utilities

One of the financial things that directly affect most Fort Morgan residents is the rates they pay for city utilities.

While the city did not have big rate increases for water, sewer, gas or sanitation in 2015, electric rates did go up some over the course of the year.

"Those were necessary due to regulatory issues that were putting pressures in the electric market on the wholesale side," Wells said.

However, the city does anticipate a shift for that in coming years, with new rate structures for wholesale power from the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska likely to yield a savings of between $2.5 and 3.2 million over the next couple years, he said.

Overall, the city's utilities are in good shape, though, he said.

"Utility rates are directly related to the quality of service that we receive," Wells said. "The lights turn on when we turn on the switch, the heaters come on when it gets cold, the water runs when we're thirty, and the toilets flush. ... All of those things happen with a lot of work from a lot of infrastructure and a lot of expense."

The city's water system "runs very well," although it does have older parts that need updating, he said, and the various utility systems are "constantly being reviewed and looked at to make sure that our infrastructure is up to date."

Debt

Currently, the city's primary debt is from loans and bank notes related to the Colorado-Big Thompson pipeline that brings water to the city. The total for that currently stands at about $17.4 million. Other city debt is far smaller and comes from street sweepers and golf carts lease-purchase agreements.

In 2015, the city was able to get rid of $2.1 million in debt due to the making the final payment of $750,000 on the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant, as well as refinancing some water system bonds with shorter terms.

"We also got some bond covenants that will help in future bonding opportunities for (the Northern Integrated Supply Project) because we don't have reserve requirements under these new bonds," Wells said. "It's going to help us in the future as we go to build more water projects."

If the massive water storage project, NISP, gets permitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the city would look at getting more bonds to pay for it, he said. And the city also is looking into building out its broadband connectivity system in coming years, which could lead to taking on some debt.

Completed projects

The city tackled several streets projects, Wells said, including building new blocks of Linda Street to accommodate both the Sol Naciete housing development and the new Centennial Mental Health Center building. The city also rebuilt Warner Street, made improvements to portions of West Bijou Avenue, West Kiowa Avenue and Nancy Street.

Other projects the city completed in 2015 that Wells highlighted included:

The new runway at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport was finished in 2015 after many years of planning and previously stalled efforts.

Quail Dunes at Fort Morgan golf course has a newly paved entryway, and the Canfield Parking Lot at Riverside Park was resurfaced to remove potholes.

Thanks to money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Great Outdoors Colorado and city insurance, the A and B ball fields at Riverside Park were realigned and rebuilt even better than before the 2013 floods that wiped them out.

Riverside Park now has an additional disc golf course, called the "Pessimist DiscGolfPark.

The old, failing Outpost Lift Station is no more, with a new gravity-based system installed with the capacity to handle growth in the northeast corner of the city.

The city's billboard along Interstate 76 for exit 80 was redone after getting blown down, with clearer wording of what was available to motorists who turned off.

The pedestrian bridge that leads from the Old Fort Park on the south side of I-76 through the tunnel and then over the Upper Platte and Beaver Canal directly to Riverside Park was rebuilt, offering better safety and accessibility to walkers, joggers and bikers.

Projects in progress

There are some projects that started last year that carried over to this year, Wells said. They include:

The long-gestating Acoma Avenue build-out began in 2015, with work ongoing in 2016 on the road and bridge that will connect the city on the south side and run along the new middle school.

Fort Morgan started work on creating a new comprehensive plan, with city staff working with a contractor to start figuring out what the city has, what it still needs, where it should grow and how to make that happen.

The Colorado Department of Transportation's Phase V project, which includes recreating the Main Street/state Highway 52 Exit 80 turnoff that leads into and out of the city, is still in the works, as is work on the intersection at Barlow Road and U.S. Highway 34/Platte Avenue. But there was discussion over the course of the year of how work on these state projects could impact Fort Morgan and how the city projects that could coordinate with the future CDOT work.

Flood recovery is another ongoing project, with the latest part including work on restorations to Rainbow Bridge that started in 2015 and continues this year.

Community events

Wells also went over the various community events that the city held in 2015.

In June, the Glenn Miller SwingFest celebrated its 20th anniversary. It is still unknown whether the festival will happen this year.

In June and July, the Live @ the Park summer concert series drew hundreds of people downtown, and the Party in the Park events held in conjunction with the concerts drew even more. At the Parties in the Park, people got a free hamburger dinner, could play games and had chances to win free items from the city in drawings after filling out city surveys. These parties will be back this summer, too, Wells said.

"We want our citizens to know that we care about them, and we want to provide the best services, and we want their feedback," Wells said of the surveys. "What they say matters."

There also was the big Bobstock music festival in July, and then the Fall Harvest Car Show in September, and the city informed people about city utilities at the annual Utility Week Barbecue in October.

In December, Christmas Capital of the Plains events took over downtown, with the towering Snowzilla slide on Beaver Avenue and lots of fun, family events on Saturdays.

City initiatives and service

The city also had four big initiatives that were worked on in 2015, Wells said, as well as taking on some community services projects.

They included: "exceptional customer service," city employee safety, economic development and employee recognition.

"I really have to thank our employees for developing a culture of safety within the city of Fort Morgan and working on developing a culture of exceptional customer service," he said. "Those are very important to the city."

And the city is creating its own economic development department to further that goal.

"We had community service projects where we went and cleaned up a park as city employees, and we had council members come and attend that as well," Wells said.

Upcoming initiatives

Wells will hold a visioning session with the council on March 8, but there are already a few initiatives in progress that he said he knows will be worked on in 2016.

They include:

• Creating a city broadband utility with the city's fiber network and seeking a Department of Local Affairs grant to fund it;

• Creating a stormwater utility to fund improvements to the city's drainage system and its maintenance;

• And repaving city streets as funding allows, which was residents' biggest priority on the city surveys last summer.

But with a new mayor and council comes the opportunity for new priorities and ideas for providing what residents want from the city, and Wells said he will seek the council's input at the visioning session.

"We're increasing our involvement in economic development and will be working to establish a successful Economic Development and Marketing Department within the city in 2016 and moving forward, and we will continue with community surveys," Wells said. "A lot of that will come out with our comprehensive plan."

Reactions

Mayor Ron Shaver thanked Wells for his report and offered praise for the city's employees who "keep us rolling on and safe" in Fort Morgan.

"I think we are very fortunate as a city to have a very solid core group of individuals that work for the city and keep the city's operations going," he said. "We have an exemplary police department, volunteer fire department, our utilities' enterprise funds, as well as all of the general fund departments and entities that take care of the city."

Speaking directly to Wells, Shaver said, "You've amassed a good core of department heads and directors to lead us into the new year."

Councilwoman/Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Northrup echoed that sentiment, "Kudos also to Jeff for riding herd over all of our great employees."

Fort Morgan opened this new pedestrian bridge over the Upper Platte and Beaver Canal between Interstate 76 and Riverside Park on Jan. 29, 2015. Unlike the old bridge it replaced, it meets Americans with Disabilities Act standards and should make for a safer and easier trip between the city's Old Fort Park and Riverside Park. This was one of the projects completed in 2015 that City Manager Jeff Wells highlighted in his annual report Tuesday to the City Council. (City of Fort Morgan / Courtesy photo)

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